Politics should be something for everyone, not something that is done to everyone !

19 September 2014

Today, we know the result of the Scottish referendum. Most of those who voted "No" did so after the Home Rule vow from UK political leaders David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband.

The Green Party which supported the "Yes" campaign believe that real constitutional change is now essential. The question of how that can be achieved by our discredited political class with their disastrous track record on delivering on their promises needs to be addressed quickly.

The Scottish people set a new standard for political debate. We now have to strive for the same amount of engagement around the rest of the UK.

Greens say: Politics should be something everyone does, not something that is done to everyone.

The Scottish Green Party had a great, positive campaign of hope, shared with the radical "Yes" campaign and many grassroots alliances, from Women for Independence to Carers for "Yes".

The Green Party is proposing building a different kind of society, one in which everyone has access to the resources for a decent quality of life - jobs that workers can build a life on, adequate benefits given ungrudgingly, affordable housing and where new sources of renewable energy are owned by the community. We also believe that we need a society that is built on a different kind of economy where finance serves the real economy rather than threatening it.

A new constitutional settlement - starting with a reform of the Housing of Lords - must be part of this debate. More power to make decisions that affect our lives must be devolved from Westminster to Local Governments and new Regional bodies to be part of the change.

We need to give 16 year olds the right to vote.

And we need to bring our electoral system up to the 21st century by ditching our antiquated First Past the Post system of election and adopt Proportional Representation (PR) as a fairer and more democractic system of electing our MPs to the House of Commons.